Actor/Actress: You don't do it for the money

Introduction
1) Save your money before you quit your day job!
2) Never lose your humility.

Job Function
Being an actor is all about self-expression. If you are in it for the fame, money, or recognition, you might as well give up now. Only 1% of actors actually "make it" but there are lots of gray areas in between. The best part of the job is being able to express yourself in ways no one else understands. Then again, on the slight chance that you DO get fame, money, or recognition, that always is pretty great too. The worse part of daily job functions are definitely the auditions. You can do 30 auditions in two months and never land a job, or you can do 1 audition and get a job that keeps you on tour for a year. There is nothing definite. It's the only career I can think of where employers have to discriminate against race, age, gender, and weight. Advertisement
Lifestyle
"Work" is a relative term when you're an actor. When you are working, you ARE playing. The rehearsals are usually the only real work involved since you spend sometimes 8-12 hours (or more) a day for usually 2 weeks straight doing the same thing over and over and over again until you get it right. After that, you get on stage and get to play.

The hours and flexibility are also relative since you can travel all over the place and usually only "work" at night, leaving your days free to do whatever you want.

What kind of personality would succeed at this career? Well the obvious type you would think would be an outgoing one. In my experience, those types of personalities sometimes can only get so far because (and they might not realize this) they are in it for the attention and/or recognition. It's those people who are serious about it as a craft and can actually take it seriously that move further and can then have more fun.

It's the difference between "acting" and "being". Acting is what class clowns do for attention. Being is what you are when you experience an emotion. It takes a lot of years of realizing who you are before you can completely let yourself experience various emotions as needed to make a story progress.

Additional Information
Being an actor is hard and it's not for those who can't take constant rejection and a lifelong challenge. If you are always willing to learn, experience, and grow as a person you will always be able to become a better actor.